John Murphy (5 October 1913 – 7 May 2009) was an Irish business man who established the construction and infrastructure contractor J. Murphy & Sons. The company, based in Kentish Town, with its green vans and lorries, works on building sites across the UK and Ireland. [1] His late brother Joe also went into construction in London, trading as Murphy Ltd and using grey vehicles, [2] but that company went into administration and closed in 2013. [3]
Murphy was born at Loughmark, near Cahersiveen, County Kerry. He left school at 15 but found work hard to come by. He travelled to London and started up as a subcontractor in the building trade. The Second World War offered him a golden opportunity. New airfields were urgently needed and later on runway repairs were needed also. [4] He was successful in providing this service and at end of the war was well placed to help with large-scale reconstruction. Other ventures included electrification, cable installation, water facilities and road-building.[ citation needed]
At his death in 2009, his worth was estimated at about £190 million. [5] He valued his privacy and was known to spend little on luxuries, instead preferring to spend time with his own workmen and other Irish friends. [1]
In the 1970s a specialist division of the company worked on the development of natural gas. [6] Later projects included the Stansted Airport Rail Link, work in the City of London, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and London’s Olympic Park. [7]
In 2007 J Murphy and Sons generated nearly £500 million of revenue and made pre-tax profits of £60 million. It was appointed lead contractor in the £125 million Liverpool- Manchester water pipeline project, which is to carry up to 100 million litres of water per day. [4]
After Murphy's death in May 2009, leadership of the company passed initially to his daughter Caroline, who had been appointed deputy chairperson of the group in 2007. [8] She later planned to turn the business into a worker’s Co-op owned by its 3,500 employees, but other board members — notably her mother, brother and half-brother — resisted, and she resigned in 2014. [8]
The company was then led by Steve Hollingshead until the appointment in 2017 of John Murphy's grandson, John B Murphy. [9]
In the year to 31 December 2017 the company made a pre-tax profit of £12.43m from a turnover of £711m, and had 3,878 employees. In 2018, it experienced a slow down in growth, and cancelled its Christmas Party as part of a cost-cutting drive affecting jobs across the business. [10]